New Beer Sunday (Week 686)

Magnify Peak of Righteousness Nelson DDH IIPA

Pours a cloudy orange-tinted yellow with two-plus fingers of soupy, off-white head. Thick webbed lacing.

Orange juice, papaya, pineapple, wine grapes and a hint of herbs and white pepper.

The herbs come on much stronger in the taste, almost giving it a nutty character. The white wine and tropical fruit are also very present, along with a solid bitterness.

Medium bodied and creamy with moderate carbonation.

I've loved everything I've had from Magnify thus far. This is a tasty Nelson showcase that's a pleasure to try. Thanks, @MacMalt.

 

Greetings fellow NBSers! A partly cloudy/partly sunny day here in the Fourth Corner at 11:42 and 47 degrees according to the bank clock across the street.

No one should ever take relationship advice from me, my longest continuous relationship with a woman was 6 months, and at the end we both felt like we were ending a 30 year marriage. Another was on/off/on/off over about 12 years with the extremes of talking about marriage & children, to talk of lawyers and restraining orders, on both sides. But, she was part of the reason I ended up here in the PNW. Of all the many women I've been involved with, I truly do not hate or have any vitriol for any of them, and I think I've learned from all of them. To quote Bob Seger; "sometimes at night, I see their faces, I feel the traces they've left on my soul, and those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul"

Another from @bl00 's NBS BIF #007 boxes, a well established and respected brew: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/287/37265/ . A very nice brew, one that doesn't let the barrel dominate.

I'll likely be back later with more.

 

Decadent Ales Passiflora is a double dry-hopped DIPA. This opaquely cloudy tap pour is pale yellow with a 1 cm foam cap. The aroma is tropical fruit and resin. The flavor is mango-pineapple-tangerine. The hop bitterness is moderate to strong and is full of "the dank" but the mouthfeel is smooth. I'll look out for more ales from this brewery.

 

Dang, I tried to respond to @2beerdogs. Anyway, I loved his story and it sure reminded me of a lot in my life. Especially the Viet Nam business about official and unofficial activity. Several of my friends were forever changed by those experiences. The first time I saw the woman that would become my wife 37 years ago, I fell in love. I was 30, was having too much fun, had never thought of getting married. Our 37th anniversary is June 11th. I am one lucky son of a bitch! Cheers to @lordofthewiens on his "success".

 

A-Pours a nice amber color with very nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has nice subdued piney and hoppy hints
T-The taste follows the nose with piney and hoppy flavors
M-A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
O-A good beer with a good kick

 

Big fan of The Drude, myself! The world could use a few more uncompromising old bastards like that- Cheers!

 

4.06/5 rDev -3.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A: Beer pours a bery black body with a creamy coffee like head. Head retention is pretty good. Average amount of lacing while drinking. Overall fairly sound appearance for this beer.

S: Beer smells of almonds and a slight amount of sugary sweetness. Aromas are fairly typical of the style; added sweetness likely comes from the addition of doughnuts. Average aromas with a touch of sweetness.

T: Beer tastes similar to what the aromas hinted towards. However, the flavors seems better than there aroma counterparts. Sweetness comes out tasting like vanilla and sugar. There is also a distinct amount of almonds present. Only a slight touch of booze on the backend of the beer.

M: Thick full mouthfeel. Not overly sweet like other dessert stouts. Alcohol content becomes more noticeable as the beer warms. The sweetness isn't overpowering but limits my likeliness of drinking again.

O: Fairly nice beer. The sweetness is not overpowering and adds nicely to the base beer. None of the aromas stood out. Alcohol becomes more obvious at the backend of the beer.

 

A-Pours a nice amber color with very nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has generous piney and hoppy hints
T-The taste follows the nose with lots of piney and hoppy flavors
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer with a nice bitterness
O-A well made beer

 

heyo! Thanks for the shout out and as always drinkin for another NBS!

I was pretty disappointed in the barrel aged version unfortunately.

Baltic Porter for me is a real odd duck, it's certainly unique but always tough to describe, and sometimes in all fairness not a style I really gravitate towards.

I am gettin cued up here shortly.

 

New beer #5.

King Royal - Tired Hands
Baltic Porter - 7% abv
Canned 4/5/18 (10 days ago)
Score: (4.06 0% rDev)



L - 1-finger tan head atop a black body.

S - sweet caramel malt, pine, a little citrus, perhaps a little chocolate.

T - smoky, roasty coffee and chocolate. Tastes nothing like what the nose would lead you to believe. A little pine and citrus. Mildly bitter, mildly boozy, mildly sweet.

F - medium body and carb.

O - the smokiness here makes me dig this. It comes at you out of nowhere, and is quite pleasing.

 

Just getting started around here. My new beer for today is Kiss My Elbow from Offshoot. Got this one from @2beerdogs . It’s a hazy triple IPA clicking in at a cool 10.5%ABV. I love my big beers, so it’s time to dive in.



Definitely hazy. Rusty orange color with a lot of heavy overripe tropical fruit in the nose. I can definitely tell this is a big IPA. Alcohol is very present, but not burning. This isn’t a chugger at all, haha! Heavy tropical mush mixes with a quick delivery of hops washed away by heat.

 

More dark malt action with another Ohio stout in my glass today.



Maumee Bay Brewing Company's Total Eclipse Breakfast Stout.

Pours black with a finger of khaki, caramel-colored head. Head retention is okay with great lacing left behind. Aroma is roasted, toasted, and nutted malts with additional complexity-adding notes of chocolate, and caramel. There is a light body of medium-roast coffee as well. Roasted and nutted malts are the emphasis of the aroma. Flavor profile is roasted, and toasted malts come out first in the flavor profile and dominate the remainder of the flavor display. Nutted and earthy malts come to light more at the end. Medium-roast coffee kissed with char, chocolate, and light caramel round out the rest of this breakfast stout. Mouth feel is medium-thick in thickness, with a velvety feel that is broken up a touch by some harsh carbonation fizz at the back. Overall, a solid stout focused on being a great simplistic stout with a splash of coffee added.

Score: 4 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4 | 4.25 | BA Score: 4.21 | rDev: -0.2%

 

Alright, on to my first of two new beers for NBS today, folks! This one is my second canned offering by Four Quarters out of Winooski, VT. I visited these guys are their tiny little garage-esque location just outside of Burlington a few years back and then caught some of their stuff on tap at Beer Meets Wood last fall in Portland, ME. This is my first sour from them out of a can. Let's see what it's like!



As the label says, this is a coconut/lime/salt sour clocking in at 5.5% ABV. It pours a very pale and light-looking hazy golden color with a striking head of bone-white foam measuring several fingers high. This collar lasts for a couple minutes before sinking down to about a finger-and-a-half. Very slight lace on this one, but the legs are overall decent and I like the look of the body here.

The nose is kind of unappealing... it's very "pickle"-like, with some anonymous lacto notes kicking around alongside some very light citrus. I've had one other coconut sour beer before, which was a gose by Finback. Where that one was almost too heavy-handed about its coconut inclusion, this one feels a little too dialed-back. I get very little of that element here, and what I do get is pretty disappointing to me.

The flavor profile is a bit better, but something about this just doesn't come together as well as it probably would like to in my opinion. The lacto profile is rather understated and, while the salt does help balance the finish with some nice salinity/minerality, the flavor just doesn't feel punchy or as suggestive of the adjunct ingredients to me. I get some toasted coconut and suuuper light notes of lime here, but if I wasn't told these ingredients were featured, I'd likely be totally lost about what to think here. The feel is rather sprightly and has some nice, tickling carbonation as well as a good balance to it in terms of body/sourness, but I'm just not really digging the way this came out. This has pretty good reviews so far, though, and the stuff I had from them at BMW was awesome, so perhaps it's just me getting personally hung up here. I wouldn't revisit this one, though, in all honesty.

 

Happy New WisCANsin Beer Sunday (Week 686)!

I am a CANtented bachelor at this point in my life. My previous relationships just never worked out, partially since I was a sailor aboard four ships over the course of my Navy career & that made it tough on relationships. As I have grown older, I prefer my own company at home, but I do not mind going out & socializing, either.

I recently CANpleted a CANTrade with a fellow in Kenosha, WI, not far from the IL border. How do I know this? A buddy from a tour with the Seabees left us to push boots at Great Mistakes & he was commuting from there when I went for a visit to see the Monet exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute in 1995. Well, we also went to a Stillers/Bears game at pre-refurbished Soldier Field & a 'Hawks game at the then-recently opened United Center. CHI is my 3rd favorite North American city, after S. F. & Pixburgh, but my alternate sports town since with the exception of the Cubs, there isn't any overlap with their PGH & CHI teams & yes, I root for the CHISox NOT the Cubs. I also have a high school classmate in Appleton, WI & we have a wager on the Flyers/Penguins series with Game 3 today. My next dream is to earn a Po.D. from the University of Wisco. Onward!

Wotta boon to get https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/590/1963/?ba=woodychandler#review in a CAN! Take note of my drinking CANpanion.

The local library has a Book ReSort where they sell used books with a semi-annual open house sale where they sell donated odds & sods as well as books. I bought her last year when I heard her lowing from a cardboard box outside & she will sit with me as I drink (especially) Milk Stouts. She is branded as "Chicago" & proudly enumerates herself as one of Mrs. O'Leary's cow's descendants.

Back to hockey to return with more WisCANsin CANs later.

 

No problem, always enjoy seeing a familiar face (from NBS especially) on the reviews to compare to. Saw your BBA review, also, and could see your POV. I just happened to like the weirdness in the end (though agree, probably not typical or even recognizable as a Baltic Porter).


Edit: noticed this was my 2500th rating (2003 reviews), so I’ll link Ocelot’s latest IPA, Much Obliged. An average NE IPA that is nicely on the bitter side for the style. But it has too much of what I assume is oat to distract.

 

I want to write something special about relationships, but others have said it better than I already. My girlfriend and I celebrate our 8th anniversary on Tuesday, so it's a timely NBS topic. We first got together at the end of college and now, 30 years old, we've both gone through quite a bit of growth as individuals, and growth in our relationship. She makes me want to be a better person, and constantly encourages and supports my efforts to do so. It was her push that got me into the beer world, her push that got me into homebrewing, her push that got me into the therapy that has made a huge impact on my self-understanding and emotional well-being over the past 2 years. I would say I've had the same effect on her, but she's a self-starter who at best needs me to remind her to slow down and have a beer in the backyard with me every day. I'm happy to be the calm amidst the tempest that life and specifically NYC can be.

Moving to beer, the past 6 months or so has been good fun, getting to know a few of my fellow NY BAs through the small batch releases at Sixpoint. I'm fairly certain I've reviewed a few of those beers here, and today will be no different. The friendship and camaraderie that have come with getting to know @Sixpoint, @jrnyc, @mcshk, @EnthusedAboutBeer and others has been a lot of fun as our cult group gets together monthly to drink great beer and have fun.

The first of today's offering is Batch #5 of the Eric Bachli-led creation of Sixpoint's house pale ale, Hootie.



Sixpoint Hootie
My score: 4.39/5

This review is for batch #5, released April 14, 2018 at the small batch release in Red Hook. Hootie is now Sixpoint's house Pale Ale, coming in at 5.4%, 5 IBUs.

L - 4.25
This pours a bright, golden, hazy orange with a thick, frothy white head that lasts, leaving behind layers of lacing.

A - 4
Smell is a strong citrus to start off, warmth brings a layered tropical fruit. A little piney dankness around the edges. While powerful, this is not a highly complex aroma -- in the best of ways. At 5.4%, I have looked at this pale ale as a drinking beer – something you can have a few of in a row – and so the aroma matches that approach well.

T - 4.5
Smell follows along the nose very closely. Not overly complex, but delicious nonetheless. Warmth brought a more dynamic flavor, so next time, I will have to let the can warm before opening it. I drank ¾ of the can in about 10 minutes (more on that to come), so this review is very open to change.

M - 4.75
The mouthfeel is fantastic. It’s medium body for the style, but finishes with the kind of dryness that doesn’t sap your mouth, but makes you want to take another sip. There is a bit of resin left behind on the tongue and teeth, but it works with the dryness to make you want to drink more. Carbonation is medium-high, matching the thick head, and that makes it go down very easily as well.

O - 4.5
This is a great pale ale. It has the qualities you expect from a NEIPA – haziness, fruity, juicy, full body – dialed back in just the right proportions to pale ale levels. Some will argue that the dryness or bitterness is a bit much, but I think those are important aspects that help create the repeat-sipping-must-do-now effect.